Former CJI’s son-in-law to be probed

The Kerala government has ordered a vigilance probe into former Chief Justice and now NHRC chief KG Balakrishnan’s son-in-law PV Sreenijan’s wealth that had reportedly shot up from Rs 25,000 to Rs 7 crore in four years.

The Kerala government has ordered a vigilance probe into former Chief Justice and now NHRC chief KG Balakrishnan’s son-in-law PV Sreenijan’s wealth that had reportedly shot up from Rs 25,000 to Rs 7 crore in four years. Chief minister VS Achuthanandan directed home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday to appoint a senior bureaucrat to probe the charges against Sreenijan, now a state Congress leader.

Meanwhile, Justice VR Krishna Iyer, who first asked Balakrishnan to quit the NHRC to allow an impartial probe, alleged that he had been requested by a retired judge not to write to the Prime Minister, seeking Justice Balakrishnan’s removal.

But union law minister M Veerappa Moily virtually gave a clean chit to Justice Balakrishnan on Monday, saying there was no evidence against him. “I don’t have a single piece of paper to say anything. These are merely allegations in newspapers and TV channels.”

Two days ago, a Kerala Youth Congress worker, KP Shameer, wrote to Achuthanandan, citing allegations against Sreenijan appearing in the media.

HT reported last week that Sreenijan, a Congress candidate in 2006 assembly elections from Ernakulam district, showed in his affidavit that he did not have any land and had a bank balance of only R25,000.

Records with HT showed that in 2007, he purchased a 2.5-acre riverfront property for R14 lakh in Thrissur. According to local people, the market rate for one cent — or one-hundredth of an acre — of land in the locality now is R2 lakh.

In 2009, Sreenijan and his wife and Balakrishnan’s daughter, KB Sony, jointly purchased 30 cents of land in Elamakkara in central Kochi for R1 lakh a cent. The current price for a cent of land in the area is R8 lakh.

Another report on Monday said Justice Balakrishnan’s brother, KG Bhaskaran, and his nephew, KG Praveen, paid R22 lakh for 60 acres in Dindigal, Tamil Nadu. The land is worth at least 10 times more.